The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Centre’s nod for export of non-basmati stocks

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Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Centre’s nod for export of non-basmati stocks

Correspondent

State Government’s certification a must, it says

Civil Supplies Department seeks clarification, further orders from State
Exporters busy collecting data of rice stocked in various godowns

Kakinada: Relaxing the ban imposed, the Centre has given green signal for export of non-basmati rice stocks brought into the godowns of Kakinada city till October 10.

The condition

In a notification issued on November 2, the Director-General of Foreign Trade and ex officio Additional Secretary to the Government R.S. Gujral, however, laid down the condition that the State Government should certify that rice was brought for export and stocked in the godowns of Kakinada city.

“We have communicated to the district Collector about the latest instructions and sought his clearance for the rice meant for export.

Under the clarification issued by our department top brass, we will allow all rice shipments strictly on the certification of the Collector. We will permit every shipment of rice both against irrevocable commercial letter of credit and also against cash against documents (CAD) or other modes of advance payments,” said R.V.L. Narasimha Rao, Assistant Commissioner of Customs.

He told The Hindu that everything now depended upon the State Government’s certification and no-objection from their side.

A hitch

When his attention was drawn to the fact that most of the godowns were located outside the city limits such as Toorangi, Valasapakala, Nadakuduru, Samalkot, Anaparty and Biccavolu, Mr. Narasimha Rao said that “everything depended on the certification of the State Government.”

Joint Collector G.S.R.K.R. Vijaya kumar, who is also Collector for Civil Supplies, said that they referred the matter to the Secretary and Commissioner of Civil Supplies for clarification and further orders.

“We are waiting for proper guidelines and orders from Hyderabad on the modalities to be observed for certification. The orders are expected by tomorrow.

Till then the question of issuing certificates for rice shipments will not arise. We expect the clarification on city limits also so that there will not be any hitch,” he said.

Meanwhile, rice exporters were busy collecting data regarding the stocks available in various godowns for submitting the same to the Joint Collector for clearance.

According to official information earlier provided by the district administration to the Centre, some 5.84 lakh tonnes of rice worth Rs.884 crores was ready for export of which 3.80 lakh tonnes was in godowns.

Interestingly, customs authorities who hitherto adopted a tough stand on permitting rice exports relaxed their stance.

It may be recalled that the High Court had issued notices asking why action should not be initiated against them for not honouring its orders permitting certain rice shipments.

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